Quotes you can use to start conversation or to add interest to speeches or presentations

Behavior Quotes

Behavior and Customs

Laws are sand, customs are rock. Laws can be evaded and punishment escaped but an openly transgressed custom brings sure punishment. Mark Twain

There are people who strictly deprive themselves of each and every eatable, drinkable, and smokable which has in any way acquired a shady reputation. They pay this price for health. And health is all they get for it. How strange it is. It is like paying out your whole fortune for a cow that has gone dry. Mark Twain

Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel. He is the only one that inflicts pain for the pleasure of doing it. Mark Twain

By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity. Another man's, I mean. Mark Twain

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society. Mark Twain

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear - not absence of fear.Mark Twain

Anger is never without Reason, but seldom with a good One. Benjamin Franklin

A sense of humor is a measurement of the extent to which we realize that we are trapped in a world almost totally devoid of reason. Laughter is how we express the anxiety we feel at this knowledge. Dave Barry

Cynicism is merely the art of seeing things as they are instead of as they ought to be.

A hypocrite is a person who - but who isn't?

He that would live in peace and at ease, must not speak all he knows nor judge all he sees. Benjamin Franklin

If you would persuade, you must appeal to interest rather than intellect. Benjamin Franklin

Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. Benjamin Franklin

Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead. Benjamin Franklin

Take it from Richard, poor and lame, what's begun in anger ends in shame. Benjamin Franklin

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so. Douglas Adams

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself... Oscar Wilde in The Picture of Dorian Gray

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Our chief want in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can. Ralph Waldo Emerson

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character.Ralph Waldo Emerson

The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons. Ralph Waldo Emerson

This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it. Ralph Waldo Emerson

We all boil at different degrees. Ralph Waldo Emerson

People ask for criticism, but they only want praise. W. Somerset Maugham

Tradition is a guide and not a jailer. W. Somerset Maugham

Follow your inclinations with due regard to the policeman round the corner. W. Somerset Maugham,

The nice thing about being imperfect is the joy it brings to others.

"You hammer like lightning" (Really?) "Yes. You never strike twice in same spot."

Yawn and the world yawns with you. Fart and you stand alone.

Friends: if you want to keep them, don't give them away.

Etiquette: what people do when others are watching

If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

He was the sort of friend who was always there when he needs you.

Drawing on my fine command of the English language, I said nothing.

(Marge) You know Homer, it's very easy to criticize.
(Homer) And fun, too.

Rule: If there's a line, you get at the end of the line and you wait your turn. You own ONE place in the line. You do NOT have the right to invite friends to join you in the line.
Exception 1: You may invite an immediate family member such as your spouse or child to join you in the line. There are no other exceptions.
Exception 2: Halle Berry.

Rule: If you're in a supermarket checkout line, and you realize that you forgot an item, you're allowed to go get it, provided that (1) you apologize to the people behind you, (2) you know exactly where the item is and (3) you hurry. If you forgot TWO items, take your cart out of line. You are NOT allowed to leave your cart blocking the line while you wander the aisles trying to recall the ingredients for Beef Tongue Flambeau.
Rule: If you're in the express lane, and the sign says 10 ITEMS OR LESS, then you should have no more than ... Okay, we'll allow 12 items. We're not Nazis here.
Exception: Halle Berry can have as many items as she wants